Stopping the Kimba waste dump wasn’t about sacred sites — it was politics | Caleb Bond

If Kimba is the standard by which Native Title rights can be used to quash major projects in this country, then we should all be worried, writes Caleb Bond.

The use of Native Title to stall progress and economic prosperity in South Australia is a disgrace.

Through tenuous legal technicalities, the Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation have managed to kill what would have been the Kimba nuclear waste dump – a project found through a ballot to have the support of the local community.

SA now finds itself in the ridiculous position of being able to build nuclear-powered submarines, which will create high-level waste, but not being able to store low-to-intermediate level waste in a geologically stable area.

While the property that would have been home to the dump, Napandee, sits within the Barngarla determination area, native title is extinguished over the freehold.

Nevertheless, the Barngarla people argued that there were sacred women’s sites through the property and it was important to the Barngarla dreaming story.

The dump would somehow destroy this story despite the fact that stories can be conveyed for time immemorial regardless of what happens to a piece of land.

Harry and Linda Dare pose for pictures near the proposed nuclear waste dump site at Kimba. Picture: Dean Martin

But it appears it was never really about that.

It was about asserting control over freehold land and expressly trying to stop a nuclear dump being built for political reasons.

When the Federal Court case was kicking off in March, traditional owner Harry Dare told this newspaper that he and the Barngarla people were “absolutely against nuclear waste being on our country”.

But it was about more than that.

“We’re not just fighting for ourselves … we’re fighting for all of Australia,” Mr Dare said.

“I’m sure that no community wants nuclear waste in their community.

“This is only the start of many fights that we’re going to have with the Australian government.

“We will fight them tooth and nail to stop their transportation of nuclear waste over our country and we will stand for anybody in their fight against nuclear waste.”

On the basis of those comments, you’d have to say it sounds more like an opposition to nuclear waste in any way, shape or form.

Nevermind that it is a by-product of essential medical procedures and it is currently stored all over the country without complaint.

Mr Dare and his niece, Linda, also posed up for this newspaper wearing t-shirts that read: “Don’t dump on SA – say no to nuclear waste in South Australia.”

Again – no mention of sacred sites or traditional connections to the land, just a desire to stop nuclear waste being stored anywhere in the state.

The grounds on which they ultimately killed the dump was that then-resources minister Keith Pitt could have had a “foreclosed mind” on its location “simply because his statements strongly conveyed the impression that his mind was made up”.

If that is the standard by which Native Title rights can be used to quash major projects in this country, then we should all be worried.

Current Resources Minister Madeleine King already promised the project would not damage any sacred sites.

“There is a cultural heritage management plan that is informed by the research of the Barngarla people,” Ms King said earlier this year.

“There are strict protocols around the work that is going on right now to make sure there is no disturbance of cultural heritage.”

And yet a sound project that would have been an economic boon for a small Eyre Peninsula town has been stifled.